


two steps on the water

by punk_femme



Series: where you start, where you end [1]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - No Zetsu/Project Tsuki no Me, Canonical Character Death, Friends Drifting Apart Because Of Ninja Drama and Personal Issues. like Trauma and things, Friendship, Gen, Good Uchiha Obito, Grief/Mourning, Jinchuuriki Nohara Rin, Ninja Politics, Nohara Rin Lives, Pre-Canon, Root Rin Nohara... kind of, Third Shinobi War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-08
Updated: 2020-10-18
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:48:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 12,152
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25786855
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/punk_femme/pseuds/punk_femme
Summary: When Rin was thirteen years old, she met a demon that now lived inside her. She had never been smaller than she was then, brackish water up to her knees and a single eye larger than she was staring her down.When Rin was thirteen years old, she made a deal.(Or: Rin doesn’t die, that day. There is no Madara to manipulate Obito, no Project Tsuki no Me, no Zetsu trying to bring back an ancient moon lady, because I'd rather get into the way the Villages are messed up and set Danzo up as the biggest threat.)
Relationships: Akatsuki & Uchiha Obito, Hatake Kakashi & Nohara Rin, Konan & Uchiha Obito, Nohara Rin & Obito Uchiha & Mitarashi Anko, Nohara Rin & Sanbi | Three-tails | Isobu, Nohara Rin & Uchiha Obito, Nohara Rin & Uzumaki Kushina
Series: where you start, where you end [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1870666
Comments: 7
Kudos: 47





	1. throw them in the lake

**Author's Note:**

> whew this got.. a little out of hand! my original draft was only 2000 words and a very different concept in practice
> 
> I was thinking about AUs where Rin lives, then about how Obito would have no reason to turn to Project Tsuki no Me, then how much I dislike a lot of the writing around the Project, and Kaguya, and Madara's involvement.... and.... well... it just spiraled from there. hope you enjoy this is the first time in maybe four years that I've written real scenes with dialogue and action and I hope that's not too obvious
> 
> note: there is a scene describing the part from canon (episode/chapter "I'm in Hell", i think?) where Obito's beating the guy into the ground, it's only about a paragraph if you want to skip a bit of gore description, you can skip the paragraph between "to consider what he was doing before he did it, but he had a feeling that the Kiri shinobi wouldn’t be so lucky." between "He drew his arm back for another hit, and a hand closed around his wrist".

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An introduction for Rin Nohara.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> new scene added as of 10/18/2020 so sorry to just put it in like that. but it starts at "Obito finds a paper crane on his window, one day." and ends at "The things he’d seen and heard in Ame…"

The Will of Fire is the foundation upon which Konohagakure is built.

As one of the founding clans, the Senju represent the wood, the fuel, the baseline needed for a spark to ever catch. In return, the Uchiha feed and fan the flames.

It was a relationship that worked beautifully so long as both sides maintained their roles. Of course, history knows how that ended. The Senju slowly dying out, the Uchiha taken in a single night. Their will to protect each other, to exist in a state of mutual protection, lost long ago.

The thing is, fire can nurture and destroy in equal measure.

Konoha’s strength lies in the individual’s determination to protect it. A love for the Village is instilled in each child that goes through the academy, a passion reminiscent of its Founding Era and yet failing to remember why the Village was built in the first place.

Somewhere along the way, the shinobi world got stuck. It stopped growing. The coveting of and fear of power trumped all else, and the people began to suffer for it.

* * *

Rin Nohara was a war orphan. 

After her parents died, the only shinobi in their dwindling, unimportant clan was her aunt. A former med-nin who was, on paper, retired due to a bad leg injury. The injury was real, of course, but it wasn’t until later that Rin would learn her Aunt was very much an active shinobi.

It was just that her loyalties didn’t trace back to the Hokage - they lay beneath, in his shadow.

Rin was a rather ordinary girl who displayed intelligence and quick learning at a young age. Most importantly, she was friends with a Uchiha.

Children like that tended to garner attention from places they shouldn’t, and this one was no exception. Danzo Shimura had many goals and many ways to get the pawns he needed. When Rin, all of five years old, was given “advice” from her aunt and told it was top secret, super special work for the good of the Village, what else was she going to do but accept?

There was no reason to tell the child she was being used as a spy for Root.

It was simple to ask the girl to stay close to her friend, because she cared about Obito. All she had to do was encourage his growth, keep him safe and satisfied within the village. As an orphan himself, he loved the attention, and was more likely to let slip any information about his kekkai genkai. It was so easy.

Many children emulate the adults in their lives, so it was unsurprising when Rin expressed interest in becoming a medic. Someone had to take care of Obito and those eyes of his, right? There was nothing wrong with wanting to protect your friend, and if she was also reporting to her aunt every month on her progress, well, that was between them.

She was trained by her aunt, less than most real clan kids would get, but enough. She could perform field surgeries by the book when she graduated at age nine. To any observer, she was a skilled but unassuming child possessing average grades and a mild temperament.

The one struggle was that her aunt needed her to act a certain way, and socializing had never come easy to her. Alongside training that would make her an amazing spy someday, she had to learn to mask her oddities to blend in with her classmates. She mimicked their laughter, their surprise, their frustrations all with eerie accuracy, making sure she reacted to everything like every other child around her. 

She was not the expressive type, so her smile was taught.

On the surface, her pauses before responding may display thoughtfulness. She used the people around her like a guidebook to human interaction, cataloguing every expression, every conversation as a script for future use. 

Shinobi wear masks upon masks upon masks. Didn’t every one of them hide themselves, cover the violence they are capable of behind practiced personalities and eccentricities? Any good shinobi is a liar.

Not even Rin knew what sprawled below, supporting the Village from the depths beneath it. Perhaps if more had known sooner, her life could have been much simpler.

* * *

Rin had two friends.

There was Obito, of course, ever since they were just five year olds on the playground. She was friendly enough with several classmates, but they never talked much. She had been encouraged to try keeping an eye on Kakashi Hatake the same way as she did Obito, but he was far too closed off. The second friend came in later, a girl around two years younger.

Mitarashi Anko dreamed of training under the Sennin Orochimaru himself, and she was an orphan too. Though she hadn’t graduated yet, she had scary good aim with kunai and senbon both. 

She and Obito are cut from the some mischievous cloth, so different from the carefully cultivated persona Rin had to uphold, but so easy to get along with. 

They go out at least weekly for anpan, Obito’s favorite snack, and dango, which was Anko’s. One summer, the two fight over who gets to buy Rin candied strawberries at a festival, and it is a touch of affection that makes her chest burn. It’s only because of a dirty look from some jounin nearby that they settle down and agree to pool their money for it.

The first time Rin ever gets in an argument with her aunt, it’s to convince her that Anko’s friendship will not distract her from her mission. It’s worth it, for the friendship she gets to keep. The reminder that she’s unable to be honest about herself around them hurts.

Rin had never expected that she’d be able to have any friendships like what she has with Obito, but one day when it’s just the two of them, Anko gives her a bracelet. 

“It’s part of a set,” she says and holds up her. It sparkles, coral red, in front of her messy hair, her sparkling eyes, and the widest grin. It’s all almost overwhelming. “They match!”

Rin wears it every day, of course.

* * *

Because her two volatile teammates together tend to be… loud, Minato knew he wasn’t giving Rin an equal amount of attention. She was always there for her team, healing and emotional support at the ready.

It was Kushina who reminded him that no matter how much stress he was under from his own life, he couldn’t just let one little parentless child watch over two others. It was his job to take care of all three of them.

The problem was, Rin seemed fine. A little anxious, maybe, but responsible, responded well to teaching and orders both. Whenever he asked if she needed anything, she said she was okay, or admitted to something simple, easy to resolve issues she hardly needed more than a push to resolve. 

Compared to Obito’s blustering and Kakashi’s grocery list of problems, her apparent sincere okay-ness was a breath of fresh air.

* * *

When Rin’s aunt died, no one showed up to tell her what to do about her mission.

Maybe it was because she’s done enough. Maybe it had just been forgotten somehow, she had no way of knowing.

Though she grew up without parents, this was the first loss of family she actually remembers. She felt -- lost, more than sad. She wasn’t quite sure what to do, with no one guiding her the way her aunt had. Did she still have to act the same? She didn’t know how to be anyone else but the role she’d played for years.

It was obvious to her that Obito knew she was worried about something. Anko, too, but now that her whole team has made chuunin they’d had less and less free time, so it was Obito who saw her the most. He worked so hard to cheer her up, even though he had no way of knowing the truth behind her anxieties. 

She let him think it’s just grief and nervousness over the war. It wasn’t entirely wrong. 

It was here that her relationship with Kushina grew. Team Minato hadn’t been together very long, but in that time Kushina had crashed enough team celebrations or training that they all knew her. Rin didn’t know many older kunoichi, so of course she loved Kushina.

One night, they all had a post-mission dinner at Minato and Kushina’s apartment. Even though she had no idea what she was doing, and Kakashi did, Rin found herself volunteering to help cook. Which worked out, because Minato didn’t quite trust Obito and Kakashi in the same apartment around stoves and knives. 

While Kushina grumbled under her breath about sexism (Rin thinks she’s only joking, because they both chose to make the food), Rin began to feel a little overwhelmed by the counter full of ingredients and bowls and various tools. She put on a smile and hoped it wasn’t obvious how out of her depth she was -- not just with preparing a meal, but in someone else’s home, talking with someone who didn’t know her well.

Kushina might’ve noticed anyways, but she was kind enough not to mention it. 

“Minato’s usually better with dinner,” she told Rin. “But I figured it could be a good chance to show off a family recipe. Give you kids a treat! I can guide you through it, if you want.”

And she did. 

With some help, Rin learned how to cut potatoes into misshapen chunks, because they can be big and uneven, how to efficiently chop onions and saute them. She grated ginger and apple slices to keep herself busy while trying valiantly not to wipe onion-induced tears from stinging eyes. Meanwhile, Kushina cut the carrots into little stars and hearts. Rin marveled at them, and Kushina promised to give her tips later. Something in the back of her mind whispers to her that she had never bonded like this with her aunt.

They’d loved each other, certainly, but they’d always been rather formal with each other. Rin had always attributed the distance to being in her imagination. Now, she questions it. Kushina glowed with pride for this child she hardly knew, an S-rank threat emanating so much warmth as she fawned over Rin’s precision measuring ingredients.

It feels like family.

* * *

One of Rin’s best memories is with her team. It was peaceful. It was entirely uneventful. 

They were walking back to the Village one evening, in no rush. Darkness falls quickly in the woods. This was one of her favorite times of day; When the sky bleeds purple into the last golden line of light on the horizon. The whole world takes on a grainy quality, like a photo in dim lighting, as the dusk filters through swaying branches…

Obito was walking beside her, talking at her more than to her about everything and nothing. It was nice to just be his friend, for once, instead of on a mission to uncover his clan secrets by getting close to him.

He was so good to her, better than she’s ever deserved. 

Kakashi and Minato walk in front, their silhouettes familiar and comforting in the forest they call home. Rin takes in a long breath of the fresh forest air, of the life surrounding them, lets it fill her lungs. 

She doesn’t know how to be herself, how to be genuinely happy without something holding her back, but watching her team, her friends, these stupid boys that she’s known most of her life, she wonders if she could learn.

* * *

There’s no chance for her to try and learn to be happy and open and herself, because on their next mission Obito dies.

She’s taken captive and Obito’s underneath a boulder and Kakashi’s lost an eye and Obito’s dying and -- Most of her life her purpose, her mission, was to keep him and his Sharingan safe and she’d thrown herself into that role and now…

Obito asks her to take his eye and give it to Kakashi, and she does. She does. She wipes away tears and she removes his eye and she removes Kakashi’s, useless and dark, and she replaces it with Obito’s and she does it all with a trained clinical calmness and she doesn’t cry anymore.

She doesn’t cry anymore. Not even when they leave Obito under that rock, and part of Kakashi dies with him. She thinks part of her died too.

* * *

Konoha felt cold, without Obito.

To fill the space he left, she began to take on more shifts at the hospital. The busy schedule kept her distant from most of her class, and she let it. It was hard to hang out with them, now. Team Minato was the only one from their grade to lose a member, and the rest of them just didn’t understand. 

Most of all, she and Kakashi hated the pity. She knew they both blamed themselves for his death, each in their own way.

Though Rin didn’t let her mask slip, was too scared to let her mask slip, she was so tired. She was raised to smile no matter what and so she did. She missed Obito. God, she missed him.

* * *

Rin had just poured a pot of tea when someone knocked at her window.

It was late, not long after the end of a hard shift. The light above her sink hummed, the shadows in her small kitchen chased back by the almost-green fluorescent glow, like a scene from a movie that leads to emptiness or tragedy. 

She wasn’t expecting company, so when the knock came she nearly dropped her empty mug. But Rin was a shinobi, so she simply reaffirmed her grip on it, set it silently on the counter, and opened her window… to let in a single, cloaked ANBU.

Their mask was blank.

That stuck with her, because she hadn’t thought ANBU were supposed to have blank masks, and she can’t remember if she’s seen any like it before.

“Rin Nohara, chuunin?” Their voice was masculine, deep and eerily emotionless. She knew better than to assume just from the sound of their voice that they were a man, and files the information away nonetheless. It’s not like the blank mask is going to tell her anything.

“That’s me,” she confirmed. “Is something wrong?”

“Lord Danzo Shimura has taken interest in your progress.”

A councilman. Rin stood straighter, ready to commit each word they said to her memory. “You and Kakashi Hatake are currently being considered as candidates for ROOT. As you have previously worked with us, it was decided that you should be informed ahead of time, to give you more room to prepare your answer.”

Rin swallowed hard.

Root wasn’t exactly top-secret, but it was taboo to speak of openly, the same way you should never reveal the identity of active ANBU. Consequently, few shinobi lower than jounin knew about Root, and even less below chuunin -- she’d only ever heard about through pieces of conversation overheard in the hospital.

And Danzo Shimura… They said he was something of a shadow Hokage, and that Root was his own personal ANBU.

When… was she involved in it all?

_(Later that night, she would be awake in bed unable to sleep under the weight of her thoughts. She would turn to the digital face of her clock and realize that she has been working for Root since she was five years old and given guidelines and conditions for her only friendship, and she would feel sick. There wasn’t much sleep to be had, that night.)_

Why did Root want her and Kakashi? What was the true agenda behind telling her, and particularly in letting slip that Kakashi was in the same position? 

“You have six months to decide,” the Root shinobi told her, and she knew there wasn’t much of a choice. Offers like this were as good as orders to any shinobi, and a shinobi who refused to follow orders did not get very far at all. To the Village, her concerns to not matter because she is a tool.

Above all, she had always been loyal to Konoha. It’s not like she had ever known any other way of life. So, of course, she could not refuse Danzo Shimura no matter how badly she wanted to.

* * *

Miles east of Konohagakure, Obito woke up to the sound of rain.

Immediately, reflexively, he tried to sit up, but just as quickly realized that was a horrible idea. Pain bolted up his spine, and oh, fuck, his ribs are bad. He dropped back down the bed with a groan. His whole body hurt.

It took a moment for his memories to catch up to his body. When they did, he had to catch himself from trying to get up again when he noticed that his teammates weren’t here. He didn’t know where he was and he was injured and his team -- he didn’t even know if they were okay. 

Movement caught his attention. 

A paper crane sitting by his bedside moved. At first he thought he was imagining things, but it’s wings picked up speed within seconds and it shoots out the window at an alarming speed.

Wasn’t it… paper? It’s raining outside! And yet, he watched it disappear, up and away, seemingly not at all bothered by water.

He… he would deal with whatever that paper crane meant later. Clearly there was nothing he could do now. So, he looked around.

And, well, usually that would entail walking around the room to snoop to his heart’s content, suss out any traps, et cetera, but he couldn’t even sit up at the moment, so only literally looking would have to do.

It was a small room. Convenient, because it meant he could see all of it.

There were two windows next to his bed, including the one the crane flew out of. He wondered briefly if the fact that he was left under open windows means anything -- surely if he was some sort of prisoner, that wouldn’t be the case, right? 

When he looked out the windows, properly this time instead of staring in shock after the crane, the city outside startled him. Because it was a city, not some little village, and the architecture definitely did not look like anything he’d seen in the Land of Fire. The buildings here appeared to be metal, tall and patchwork like someone had stacked differently shaped components until they became towers.

Obito didn’t recognize the view outside his windows and that alone is terrifying.

He turned his eyes back to his room.

There was a desk across the room and on top of it was a veritable mountain of origami paper. Like, a lifetime’s supply. There were a couple of generic-brand kunai scattered there, too, and Obito can’t tell from here if they were his or not. The two gray pouches next to them were definitely the ones he kept on his belt.

In front of the desk was a chair. Unlike the metal of the desk, it was made of dark wood. There was some sort of… jacket, or something, black and anonymous slung over the back of it.

That was, honestly, about all there is to see in the room. He was about to try and assess his own physical state better when the door opened.

In came a stranger, probably a teenager and most likely older than Obito, pale, with hair like blood. Obito realized with a jolt that it reminded him of Kushina’s.

The person’s -- definitely shinobi, from the way they held themself, all controlled movements and micro-expressions -- visible eye widened slightly when they saw Obito awake. They were wearing a black robe, and an Amegakure hitai ate and honestly now Obito was a little embarrassed he didn’t notice that first.

“You’re awake.”

Obito can’t really respond before the shinobi had already made their way to the bedside. They offered a brief warning and put one glowing green hand on Obito’s forehead, the other on his chest. He recognized the familiar feeling of medical chakra, of course, and worried again about his team.

The shinobi gave a funny little sigh, not seeming too impressed nor too worried about whatever their diagnostic revealed, and sat back. That one gray eye was sharp, clearly looking for something.

“How do you feel?” They asked.

Hearing more of their voice, Obito decided they’re probably between sixteen and twenty. His own voice, on the other hand, was a croak.

“Thirsty,” he creaked out. The shinobi laughed.

“That makes sense. My friend will be up in a moment with water. Other than that… Any dizziness or nausea, or anything off like that, your memories seeming intact?”

“I think I’m good there,” Obito answered honestly. This was a more informal check-up than he'd ever gotten even with Rin, but he didn't mind at all. He figured they were worried about head trauma, and this didn’t really feel like either of the two concussions he’d had before. “Hurt like hell, though.”

They nodded thoughtfully. “You’re recovering pretty nicely, all things considered. We weren’t…” A moment of hesitation. “We weren’t sure you’d even make it. Your entire right side is badly damaged, and I’m not sure how well your arm and leg will recover. They might not.”

A chill ran down Obito’s spine. The shinobi gave Obito a moment to digest that, and he was grateful. He thought he took it pretty well, honestly, so much running through his head that the implication his arm and leg were still in danger wasn’t even his first concern.

The door opened again in the quiet, letting in another shinobi with an Amegakure hitai ate, blue hair, and a cup in their hand. After a nod from the red-haired one, they handed the cup to Obito.

He squinted down at it in suspicion. 

The blue-haired shinobi sighed. “Do you really think it would be poisoned after all the trouble we went through to keep you alive?” Fair point. He drained the cup in seconds, and was instantly glad for it. 

With his throat feeling better, he could start figuring out what was going on, finally. 

“Who are you guys?” He asked after a moment of deliberation. “Where are we?” 

It was the one with the blue hair who answered. 

“My name is Konan, and this is Nagato. This is our apartment in Amegakure -- You’re a long way from home, kid.”

* * *

Though her isolation was largely of her own making, Rin was lonely.

It had only been months since her aunt’s death, and even though she had grown to love Kushina like an older sister, it wasn’t the same. She had lost her only close relative and one of her only and closest friends in less than half a year.

And despite it all, Rin had no time to slow down. She didn't want to slow down. There was always something to do during wartime. The worst days are the ones she has off, mandatory rest due to a law started by the Slug Princess Tsunade to prevent burn out in medics. Those days, she mostly just sleeps.

When they had time, Anko tried to keep her occupied. They had both lost Obito, after all, and Anko’s team had been similarly fragmented. They hung out when they could, and Anko always brought food (that’s how she shows love -- sharing food. Every time she did it filled Rin’s chest with warmth). It helps.

She spent more time now with Kakashi than ever before.

They’d never been close, before, but now they began to spend more and more time together and in doing so began to understand each other much better. It was nice to actually finally know him. What she did begin to see was that his grief and his promise to Obito were eating him alive, slowly and surely, and she couldn’t do anything to lessen that burden because her healing didn’t work on minds.

Each time their team meets, she can see how that mission weighs on both him and Minato. The failure of one shinobi to save their comrade is one thing, but the guilt of a team captain is another entirely.

They all had to live with the ache of that loss. It was waking from a dream with your heart racing, wondering if you could have saved him. It was getting up and going about your day hoping you remember the way he smiled for a long, long time.

The hurt was different from when her aunt died. That was a sudden horror of “she died and you didn’t even know. But how could you know? She had died and she was never coming back and as a result you lived alone.

This was something hollow, a molasses-slow feeling of loss that seeped into her bone marrow and left her limbs numb and leaden, a memory of blood and wheezing and his eye under her fingertips. 

She bought anpan at a corner store one day without thinking, reflexively, until she got home and realized it was in her pocket and cried. The next time she made the same mistake she shared it with Anko, and that time at least they had each other.

* * *

Before long, she was left again. There was no pain, no blood on Rin’s hands, no tears in her eyes. One day she had Anko, and the next she didn’t. It was an abrupt exit, but not cruel.

With her team no more, Anko had looked well on her way to becoming the official apprentice of Orochimaru of the Sannin. He was bringing her on some sort of training mission Rin didn’t know the details, only that nine other students were going and Anko seemed a little nervous but mostly so excited. It might be the longest she’d ever been away from the Village.

It would be selfish to be anything but happy for her. Still, it hurt to lose another friend, even if this one is to distance rather than mortality. 

Anko promised she’d come back, soon and stronger than ever. She held up her hand, pinky outstretched. Rin reached up to meet it. They locked their little fingers together in promise, and their matching bracelets sparkled in the morning sun.

It would be the longest Anko had ever been away from the Village. That much was true.

* * *

In Rain country, Obito trained. 

His arm had proved to be a lost cause. It had been all but destroyed by that boulder, and in the end Nagato’s healing couldn’t save it. Back home, this would’ve got him immediately taken off active duty as a shinobi, but here?

Here, Nagato let him choose. And so, he decided that he wouldn’t let it stop him. He’s got only one eye now, too, and he didn’t let that destroy his hope, did he? But it was harder. Not only did he have to work hard to regain his strength anyway, but now he had to reinvent everything he’s learned to accommodate for his missing right arm. 

Obito’s never been the type to give up, so he didn’t. He.. he knew it wasn’t really that simple, but he didn’t want to get too deep into it. There were bigger things for him to worry about, he told himself.

He met Konan and Nagato’s friend, Yahiko. The bonds between the three of them were so clear to see, so strong, and Obito couldn’t help but think of his own team. God, he missed them.

As he recovered, he learned about the Akatsuki. War orphans leading like-minded shinobi to make a real change in the world, so that no one else has to grow up on the battlefield. For all that their goals go against his entire upbringing, Obito finds that he… agreed with them. Once he was in fighting shape and had earned their trust, they even let him help them on smaller missions.

A lot of it was just working with the people, and that helped. He was good at that. He can do that.

* * *

For all that they had spent more time together, Rin and Kakashi don’t go on any missions together until three months after Kannabi bridge. 

It made sense, really, because she was a medic and he was a front-line fighter with wildly different skill sets and they weren’t really a proper team anymore. Regardless, they had to go right into Kiri territory for this one, an area near the coast about half a day away. 

Obito’s absence felt like a gaping wound. Or, maybe that wasn’t right. As a medic, Rin should be able to fix that, and they'd already established that her healing couldn’t do anything for the mind.

She couldn’t fix this.

* * *

When Yahiko mentioned the name “Danzo Shimura” Obito was caught a little off guard. Because Danzo Shimura was a councilman in Konoha, wasn’t he? He wanted to know why he was relevant here in Ame.

Of course he was surprised to learn that Danzo is known in other countries for the shady shit he got involved in. 

A shinobi despised (not feared) by the neighboring nations for connections both proven and alleged that did not lead anywhere respectable. He profited from the fall of Uzushio, which Obito learns is overall much more common knowledge outside of Konoha and he wonders about that, too, from Hanzo the Salamanders efforts in Ame, among others. A "the end justifies the means" type that crushed anyone underfoot for his Village's benefit.

Obito had never considered before how any shinobi village is corrupt, but he can’t find any real reason to argue. When Yahiko, Konan and Nagato discussed the cruelties they saw in the shinobi world Obito couldn’t deny that they were right.

* * *

Rin ended up as a captive. Just like Kannabi bridge, except that this time -- this time, no one dies.

Instead, she was turned into a jinchuuriki.

Rin was a ticking time bomb. The relief in Kakashi’s eyes when he rescued her made her want to throw up. 

She can’t go back to Konoha like this, with a bijuu’s chakra and anger churning in her stomach. To go back knowing she was putting it in danger was as good as a betrayal, and a shinobi who betrayed their Village was no shinobi at all.

The truth was that she was a tool. 

That was what they all were supposed to be. A shinobi is supposed to protect the Village. A shinobi does not hesitate. A shinobi does their duty, does not cry, does not endanger the Village.

Even her death is going to be for Konoha, huh?

Kakashi refused to kill her. How could he kill his own teammate, after everything? After his promise to Obito?

She wasn’t surprised, but she didn’t even have her weapons on her. It was a horrible sort of blessing when the Kiri ANBU chasing them caught up.

She threw herself onto Kakashi’s Chidori. The look on his face was awful, and even worse is the knowledge that he will hate himself for this. Because she knew he would, but she also knew he had no choice. She wished she could apologize, and tell him it wasn’t his fault.

There was no pain. Just a feeling of invasion, the wrongness of someone else’s hand through her ribcage. A wound like this would kill anyone.

In what she believed to be her final moments, Rin stopped thinking of the Will of Fire.

She thought of Anko, and hoped she’d be safe wherever she is. Realized that her own fourteenth birthday was only a couple of months away. She wondered if Obito had felt like this. He’d been smiling.

Was this how a real shinobi died? Not with acceptance and stoicism, but full of tears and regret and bitterness?

Bleeding out on the rock, Rin feels less like a soldier and instead startlingly like a scared child.

* * *

A boy who may have been a ghost finds them.

* * *

A boy who had been thought dead, a boy who had briefly thought himself to be dead, a boy who had carried himself across a country, found his friends.

And for a moment, he thought he must be dreaming.

He’d come so far, worked so hard for so long to get here and -- He -- All he could do was stare as Kakashi slowed pulled his arm out of Rin’s chest, and she went limp like a puppet with it’s strings cut. The impact of her hitting the rock made him flinch. Obito’s eye burned. A scream built up from deep in his stomach and he shook.

He had always been all bark and no bite. Protecting Kakashi then had been the first time he’d thought that would change, and now this happened. It was too much. 

When Kakashi’s body fell to the ground beside Rin’s, Obito’s world turned red.

The shuriken that the Kiri shinobi flung at him were nothing, except a reminder that they were there. They passed through him like he wasn’t even there but he had no time to waste thinking about that. This was -- this was Kiri’s fault somehow. and so he threw himself at them.

He wanted to make them hurt.

Fueled by sheer rage and grief, he attacked without a plan as always. All he could think about was Rin and Kakashi, Rin and Kakashi and blood and the burning in his eye gave way to a feeling of power he’d never felt before. 

What kind of a world was this where someone like Rin could die at the hands of her own friend? He would never accept that world. 

It was a good thing he’d been practicing all this time, finding or adapting techniques he could do with one hand. It was easy enough to plunge a chakra-infused fist through one ANBU’s chest, and instinctual to phase through the blades of the three that were stupid enough to try to get him from above.

The swords went right through him into the one he’d been attacking. Taking advantage of their surprise, he leapt up, kicked the two on either side of him away, and when he landed again grabbed the third, pulled him in close, and borrowed his hand for a couple quick seals.

_Snake - Rat - Snake_

A quick whip kick to their head, and Obito was moving again. One of his opponents got a flare out, no doubt for calling for reinforcements, but he couldn’t worry about that now. He tore across the rocks to the larger crowd of Kiri shinobi, and before they could rush him he took a deep breath in, and...

Spit out a cloud of ash and gunpowder that enveloped the crowd easily. 

_“How do you plan on using this jutsu?” Konan had asked him. He’d found that while she was a naturally quiet person, she could debate strategy and combat hypotheticals for hours, so naturally she had been ridiculously helpful._

_“I know you have that idea of using someone else’s hand to complete the seals -- for your sake I won’t argue with you again on how impractical that seems,” he grimaced. She’d already given him her thoughts there plenty thank you very much. “But the Tiger seal might have to be done some precious seconds after the rest.”_

_He’d already thought of that (thank god). With a flourish, he’d held up a handful of exploding tags._

In a move that Rin and Nagato both surely would’ve lectured him for after, he ran into the cloud of ash. Disoriented and blinded, the Kiri shinobi tried to swing at him when he passed them on the way to the center of it, but not a single attack connected.

He slapped an exploding tag square on one’s back, and set it off it without a second thought.

_“The Tiger seal is just for the fire component at the end. All it is is the part that makes the gunpowder ignite - so an exploding tag or two should work just fine!”_

_At the “should”, Konan had arched her brow._

_Obito chuckled nervously at her judgment. “Well, Yahiko and I haven’t really gotten the time to test it yet. But I don’t see why it wouldn’t!” Konan had sighed, but nodded thoughtfully._

It exploded.

_“It should work.” She had conceded after a moment of thought. Konan worked with exploding tags more than he ever had, so he figured she knew what she was talking about with them. Then she had been called away by some intel Kyusuke had gathered, and that was that._

Obito was off again before the explosion ended. He’d phased through it as instinctually as he’d hoped, in the half-second he’d taken to consider what he was doing before he did it, but he had a feeling that the Kiri shinobi wouldn’t be so lucky. 

One of them was trying to take Rin’s body. He was on them in a second, throwing his whole weight into a punch that put them in the ground. A kick, and their mask shattered. Obito didn’t stop. Some part of him knew he was going too far, would revolt later at the sound of bone cracking under his fists, the pulpy gore on his fingers, but he just wanted the people who had killed Rin to hurt.

He drew his arm back for another hit, and a hand closed around his wrist.

* * *

When the world goes black, Rin wakes up.

The water she stands in is cold and still. It’s dark. She knows, deep in her gut, that she is not dead. The only sound is that of her own breathing, too loud in this stillness.

Rin looks up, and the Sanbi looks back at her.

It’s silent for one long moment. 

That single eye alone is much bigger than her, red and gold and tired. Rin doesn’t dare speak first, and she observes how it’s tails wave back and forth as fluidly as branches in the breeze. 

“I do not want to die here.” The demon’s voice sounded somehow boyish, but it made her shiver nonetheless. This was something ancient, and more powerful than she could ever fathom. “I will work with you, if you will work with me.”

“What?” She doesn’t understand. This was nothing like Kushina had made bijuu sound. 

“I will stay here, in you.” The water rippled around her legs as he shifted. “The seal on your heart is gone, but mine remains. If you agree to work with me, I will stay where I am and wait for you to repair the seal keeping me.”

“Why would you do that?”

“There have been Jinchuriki who have worked with their bijuu. I would rather live in you than die and wait to be reborn only to suffer and be captured again.”

“How do I know you’ll keep your promise? What do I have to do to keep up my end of this deal?”

“Why would I lie? I will give you power. I will give you my name and my chakra, teach you. You could become more powerful than you can even imagine.” Names implied trust, closeness. Giving the other party some power over you. His nine-tailed brother, he knew, had never willingly shared his name with a human, but the Sanbi saw no reason to be cold.

“That’s all?” She asked quietly. 

“Some of my siblings hate humans.” He said simply. “I find you fascinating. Wouldn’t it be better to live than to die for nothing? I would rather live than die simply because someone wanted me to. I already told you this.” And he had. Hearing it a second time helped his words sink in, though.

This was one choice that was all hers. Rin found that she trusted him. Maybe it was because what he said resonated with her, but everything he said seemed sincere. She wanted so desperately to believe him. Even knowing the risk she brought to Konoha if she was wrong, she made her decision.

“My name is Rin Nohara. What is yours?”

“My name is Isobu.” His single eye seemed to smile at her. “Thank you, Rin.” A gate opens; she can feel a well of power deep within her, something ancient and so, so powerful.

As her consciousness fades, fire courses through her veins.

* * *

When Rin was thirteen years old, she met a demon that now lived inside her. She had never been smaller than she was then, brackish water up to her knees and a single eye larger than she was staring her down.

When Rin was thirteen years old, she made a deal.

* * *

Rin wakes up fully healed and covered in her own blood. 

She was a talented medic. She had known, when she threw herself onto Kakashi's Chidori, that she could not survive it just like she had known she had no freedom of choice. What she didn't know then, was that one of the things that made a jinchuuriki most dangerous was their regeneration.

Thanks to Isobu, she had defied the death she'd thought she was fated for. Both of them had gone against the roles they'd been given. Pieces of her heart had been remade, her ribs sewn back together, the hole in her chest closed until the only evidence it had ever happened was a mass of scar tissue. It spread in almost delicate Lichtenberg figures branching out in each direction, reaching up to her collarbone, and she is _alive._

Rin is alive.

But she thinks that almost dying must have fucked with her brain, or something, because what she sees is impossible.

Obito is there. Obito is there, right there, just a couple yards away, alive and choking on a scream and battering the body of a shinobi already dying. Even from the back, even with his hair longer, dressed in unfamiliar clothing, she recognizes him even as the viciousness makes her breath catch.

She takes a step forward.

The carnage around them must have been his doing. It smells like a warzone, all blood and smoke and fear. She finds her footing, and drags herself forward. Obito still hasn’t noticed her.

Hurt is a dangerous thing, she decides, and closes her hand around his wrist.

It’s a gentle grip, hardly enough to hold him if he tried to free himself. But he doesn’t. He turns and faces her, and when he sees her face his whole body shudders, and then stills. 

This isn’t the sort of reunion she’d read about in fairy tales, or watched in movies. They are covered in blood and smudges of ash and dirt that the rain turns muddy rather than washing away. The right side of his face is heavily scarred, his left eye still missing, and she realizes with a sense of sickness that his right arm is just gone from the bicep down. 

Looking into his eye, she thinks his heart aches as much as hers, but at least she sees relief there too. A tear rolls down his cheek. 

_Take a moment,_ Isobu rumbles from within her and she almost starts at his voice. _There’s no immediate danger. Not anymore._

She can feel his power bubbling under her skin even as she sinks to her knees beside Obito.

“Rin?” His voice is destroyed. She thinks that her newly-mended ribs must have decided to squeeze all the breath out of her lungs, because it’s suddenly hard to breathe. She missed her best friend so much. Obito can’t help it. He starts to cry, and Rin follows him almost immediately. He lunges into her and wraps his arms around her and she wraps hers around him and they sit there in the rain, together. 

“I missed you so much,” Obito gasps. “I thought i was dying and then I woke up and I didn’t know if you two were okay, and I…” He’s cut off by a sob and just buries his face in Rin’s shoulder instead. She holds him tighter. 

“I missed you, too,” she promises. 

They hold each other and cry until Minato finds them and takes them home.

* * *

Rin and Kakashi are admitted to the hospital when they get back. Both were thoroughly exhausted, overuse of chakra and the strain of being made a jinchuuriki enough to keep them on bedrest for the next few days. Obito’s given a quick check, and once he’s found to be relatively unharmed they send him off to T&I. 

He’s upset to be taken from his team, but there’s no point in arguing. A chuunin appearing out of nowhere on his teammates mission after being missing for months in the middle of a war? Of course they have concerns.

He tells them about the Akatsuki, but only in the vaguest sense. The village knows he was saved by a kind group of foreign shinobi, that he didn’t reveal anything to them that he shouldn’t have, and that he found his team when he did after word from one of his savior’s connections (which were mostly paper butterflies, but...).

The only lies he tells are those of omission, because for all that he has never been the best shinobi he at least knows that's the best idea. 

Obito’s glad that they save the matter of his arm for later.

* * *

Rin wakes up to her teammates talking quietly under familiar hospital lights. Her team is there, all of them, alive and safe and the sight brings her tears. Obito cries with her again, Kakashi huffs at the display, Minato just laughs at their antics, and it’s almost like nothing has changed.

* * *

But of course things have changed.

* * *

Obito finds a paper crane on his window, one day. Sees a hint of writing on it’s wing, covered by other folded edges, and he carefully pulls the bird apart. Konan’s handwriting is as neat as he remembered.

Be careful of Danzo Shimura. Helped the Salamander try to kill Akatsuki. Spies say he’s working with Kiri, too. Watch out.

It was long for a letter that must have traveled all the way from Ame to find him. Obito shuddered to think of what safeguards Konan must’ve put on this thing. He knew she wouldn’t send him something like this without making sure no one else would see it. And for good reason… The implications here were huge.

Shimura helped Hanzo the Salamander? 

No Great Shinobi Nation was currently allied with Ame, because there were no benefits for it. The country was too wartorn, had nothing to offer, was a constant battleground. More importantly, Kiri?! 

Konoha was explicitly against Kiri, and what they’d done to Rin had only made matters worse. There was no reason for one of Konoha’s councilmen to be working with them, whatever that meant.

If the Akatsuki’s scouts hadn’t brought him home from Kannabi Bridge, if Nagato hadn’t saved his life, and if Konan and her boys hadn’t done everything for Obito that they had all those months, Obito didn’t think he’d believe, or trust, this warning.

But they had. So he could find no reason not to trust them. He’d heard, time and time again, from the Akatsuki and their allies of all these shady-at-best things Danzo was involved in. 

A lot of it had been. Well. Awful. Awful things, for sure, but just a part of shinobi politics. A lot of people get rich and powerful off of war, every nation has spies wherever they can. Hell, the Akatsuki eyes and ears throughout the continent because they simply couldn’t afford not to.

It was only now that he was starting to doubt it. The things he’d seen and heard in Ame…

* * *

The only warning she gets of Kushina’s visit is a crash and a shouted apology outside her room.

Rin gets just a moment to wonder, and then the woman bursts into the room, all flying red hair and jounin navy blues. Oh god, did she come straight from a mission? Rin doesn’t know whether to feel guilty or touched.

After being assured that she’s fully healed, just stuck on bed rest for a day due to exhaustion, Kushina wraps her in a hug so tight neither of them can breathe. Rin clings to her. They stay like that for a few long moments, Kushina on the edge of her, Rin’s hands fisted in her shirt, both of them trembling with something like relief.

“So, you’re a jinchuuriki now, too.” Kushina said after god knows how long. Slowly, she pulls back, but her hands stay on Rin’s shoulders.

She looks so sad.

Isobu wonders, _Is being a jinchuuriki truly so tragic?_ , and honestly, Rin felt the same. She knew Kushina was one, most of the active shinobi who knew her did, but she didn’t know much about how that had affected her life, or what sort of relationship she had with the Kyuubi. She took a breath.

“The Sanbi isn’t bad, honestly. He shared his power with me voluntarily, and hasn’t tried to break through the seal at all, just like he promised!” Kushina looked incredulous, and Isobu grumbled about how really he didn’t even actually promise, but Rin ignored it. She remembered that Kushina was Konoha's unofficial seal master, and made a quick assumption about what she was here to do. “Just -- when you modify my seal, can you not cut off communication between us or anything?” 

She gave Kushina her best smile, the one that always got her boys to listen to her when they argued. It worked on Kushina too, apparently, because she just huffed and reached into her bag to pull out a set of brushes and ink. Rin had been right, and luckily Kushina listened to her.

The editing of the seal didn’t take very long. When Kushina was done, she cleaned her brush, set it aside, and pulled Rin into another hug.

“It’s okay if you’re not really okay with this, you know,” Kushina tells her. “I wasn’t much older than you when I became the Kyuubi’s container, and I know I -- I know neither of us really had a choice.” Rin lets her forehead rest on Kushina’s shoulder. “It can be scary. And there’s a lot of people who just don’t know. The only person who can really understand a jinchuuriki is another jinchuuriki, so I just want you to be able to trust me enough to talk to me.”

“I do trust you,” Rin promised, and meant it. “And it is a little scary. But he’s been so kind, despite how humans have treated him. I think he’s scared, too.” Inside, Isobu shifted uncomfortably and complained that he was a bijuu, he wasn’t scared but she ignored him.

“He told me his name, Kushina. I’ve chosen to trust him.” And that wasn’t all of it, but she didn’t want to get into how she could relate to feeling trapped and just wanting to live right now. When she retreated back to her pillows, Kushina stayed sitting on the side of her bed. 

“Okay. I believe you,” Kushina smiled a little sadly. “If you two really are able to work together, you’re going to be a goddamn force of nature, kid.”

* * *

The end began slowly.

For now, let’s start here: Rin Nohara’s life had gone through a lot of change, and she didn’t know what to do. 

It’s complicated, being a jinchuuriki. Konoha is a lot more careful about how often she sees combat now, towards the end of the war. One of the Sandaime’s last decisions in office is not to announce to the world that Konoha has gained a jinchuuriki, choosing instead to see how Kiri reacts. And they don’t react.

It may be because they know the war is drawing to a close, and would rather not prolong it. Or, maybe because no Great Nation would want to admit they used so underhandedly and had, as a result, accidentally given their enemies a weapon of mass destruction.

Either way, Rin’s status as the jinchuuriki of the Sanbi is relatively hidden. It’s something of an open secret among higher-ranked shinobi in Konoha, but otherwise, most have no idea.

And then the Sandaime retires, the first Hokage to get to do so, and Minato is the Yondaime.

She is ever-aware of Root, of what she’s heard about Danzo, and knows her team isn’t safe. She wonders how much Minato gets to know about it.

But she keeps moving. There are still over two months until Root is supposed to contact her. She trains harder, now that her chakra control is shot to hell and back. It turns out that having a bijuu suddenly increase your chakra reserves throws off your control, and medical ninjutsu requires finesse. There’s a chance she might never get back enough to do a proper med-nin again. 

She still takes shifts at the hospital, just different tasks usually handled by civilian doctors, and that’s fine because even with the war drawing to a close there is so much to do and never enough hands.

Meanwhile, Kakashi falls into ANBU. You’re not supposed to know, really, when someone joins ANBU. But because their identities are to be kept secret and because they get certain privileges with such an important and dangerous job, ANBU are encouraged to stick to one or two certain medics. And Rin was the only medic Kakashi trusted.

So when he was injured for the first time as an ANBU operative, Rin was called down from the break room and surprised by the sight of one Kakashi Hatake, arm broken in two places and reserves running on empty.

She’s worried about him, not his physical state that day but his mental state overall, but can do nothing except treat him or supervise his treatment when he finds his way to her hospital. Even though she was the only med-nin cleared to work with him and so she saw him often, he was avoiding her, as clear as day. And you know? That was fair. It hurt, but it was fair.

How do you even talk to each other, when you made him put a hole through your ribcage and watch you bleed out on the rocks? How do you look each other in the eyes, after that?

Anko had returned, finally, not long before Team Minato came back whole.

Orochimaru was a traitor now, and many were suspicious of his wayward student. Rin didn’t buy that Anko would turn against the people of the Village for one second, but when she went to visit she was greeted by silence.

She’d stood at the door for what felt like hours, and had been about to leave when she heard movement inside, the rustling of sheets. When she’d called out again and gotten no answer, she’d demanded that if that was Anko in there to please respond or she would assume it was a robber and would break in herself to stop them. 

At that, Anko finally had told her to go away. She didn’t want to talk right now.

She didn’t want to talk the next day, or a week later, or a week after that. Rin gave her the space she asked for, even though it hurt. It felt like Kakashi and Anko both were drifting further away each day.

All she’s really got now is Obito, especially the closer Kushina gets to the due date she isn’t allowed to tell them, and that’s -- it’s good. Honestly, it is. She’s happy to have them, happier still to know that her best friend is here and he is alive and that is enough to keep her going. It’s strange after all the time she’d spent mourning him.

It’s nice to train with him again, too.

Working with Isobu proves to be hugely beneficial for her, just like Kushina had said. She loves the feeling of being strong enough to actually impress her teammates, her family, and learns to love the feeling of his power on her skin. He helps her figure out how to form coral over her skin like armor, and manipulate it freely after that.

The first time Obito spars against this Rin remade, he’s almost terrified.

For the first time in her life she gets strong. She beats Kakashi in a spar, one of the rare times he joins them for training and the shock in his eyes feels good after the initial sting of _“why is he so surprised I can reach his level?”_. She’s not just a med-nin now, and she’s glad for it.

Obito’s so fucking proud of her, but he worries the same she’s been concerned about him. He knows now what supports the village from below, and it terrifies him. 

Meanwhile, Rin loses sleep to the thought of losing her friends forever. She’s had to say goodbye to Obito once before, Kakashi and Anko seem to be slipping out of her reach, and all she can do is play good little shinobi and hope for the best. She hates it.

Despite the anxieties and secrets running rampant, it’s strangely easy to fall into routine. Really, Rin can almost convince herself things are better than they were before, except that her life seemed ruled by entirely justified paranoia. 

All they could do was move forward, really. So she tried to ignore how difficult that was when so much was left unresolved. 

The end was slow, until suddenly suddenly it wasn’t.

When the Kyuubi attacked, Team Minato fell apart one last time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> -the red bracelet Anko gives Rin was inspired by this comic: https://shammikorn.tumblr.com/post/177567672675/day-4-memorygrief-bracelets-from-the-boruto-era
> 
> -as far as Root and Danzo go, manga canon doesn't actually go as deep into it all as I thought it did... The anime adds more, and fans have expanded on it in interesting ways, so I enjoy the sort of freedom to adapt it to your writings needs... will have more on that in the last chapter.
> 
> -on Nagato: since Madara DID stay dead at the Valley of the End in this AU he did NOT (obviously) secretly transplant his Rinnegan into any children - and so Nagato does not have any Rinnegan. He did, however, turn to medical ninjutsu as a way of protecting his team, I just think it suits him 
> 
> -Obito's arm is gone because uhh it looked to me like if it wasn't for the white Zetsu/Hashirama cells he wouldn't have one anymore - when he punches the rock to try to escape and his rebuilt arm can't hold up, it's gone from the bicep down... which I'm taking to mean that his own flesh&blood arm was just gone. I didn't go too much into it all mostly because it's not my story to tell, you know?
> 
> -Kushina modifies the seal because IIRC she taught Minato his fuuinjutsu - I'd figure she's the closest thing to a fuuinjutsu master available.
> 
> -Re: the Kyuubi attack, I was into Naruto before the anime even got to a point where it was certain someone specifically freed Kurama... so I believed for Years that he really did just get loose because of the seal weakening and then rampaged, and I think that... works? Nothing against the truth of it in the manga honestly but I think with his strength and hatred for humans it isn't hard to believe that that could just be it. So in this, that IS just it.
> 
> -I wanted to go a bit into, like, Kakashi and Obito training together with their Kamui and just overall more detail into the lives of Team Minato "back together" only in the vaguest sense of the term... But I've never written anything over 3k before so I started to feel like I had to wrap it up...  
> 


	2. caught by the dogs (interlude: Obito)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A few incorrect assumptions never hurt anyone, now, did they?

Obito was going to gather some intel of his own.

He… he didn’t like doubting Konoha, his home, the Village he’d fought for all this time. But it was even harder for him to shake the thought that Konan and the others were right to warn him about Danzo, that he couldn’t turn a blind eye.

So, he was going to dig around.

He knew that he could get in serious trouble if he was caught, but why would he get caught? Pranksters like him had a way with stealth, and besides. He and Kakashi had been training a lot to understand their new, shared, Mangekyou, and Obito was pretty confident he could sneak into Danzo Shimura’s office.

(Also, he was kind of proud that he’d finally found something he could do better than Kakashi, who could barely even send a kunai into the dimension their Mangekyou opened into it without passing out.)

It was simple enough to get into Shimura’s office with Kamui. He’d been careful of course, finding Shimura’s schedule for the day, making sure there was no one here. 

(He had no way of knowing that there would be Root agents guarding it 24/7. Even the Hokage’s office wasn’t that cautious.)

* * *

There wasn’t much of interest in the files here. Some political documents, a few things with the Daimyo’s seal that caught his eye. It took him what felt like hours to find anything related to Root.

It was a folder, simply marked “Foundation”. Then under that, smaller, “Root”. Like an afterthought.

He picked it up.

(He had no way of knowing, either, that this was bait. Danzo had plans to approach Kakashi, plant the right seeds of doubt in his mind, he’d already had Rin approached, and now it was Obito’s turn. The boy hadn’t been careful enough, when he’d started digging for answers.)

The first document in it looked like documentation of a past mission. Paper-clipped to it were two pictures: Rin, looking much, much younger, and so, so small, smiled up at him. With suddenly-cold hands, he lifted her up to find his own picture underneath.

He started reading.

“Instructions to stay close to Obito Uchiha, and collect whatever intelligence possible on the Sharingan.” That part was highlighted in yellow. 

At the bottom of the page, the mission status was marked as “Complete”, which was odd because as far as Obito knew, the missions desk always used “Successful” or “Failed” with some complicated system of symbols and colors to mark things like complications. He didn’t care about that right now.

Rin was working for Danzo Shimura.

Rin had used his trust in her to gather information that he shouldn’t have told anyone outside the clan, for Danzo Shimura.

He felt sick.

Had every kindness she’d shown him been a lie? Was every encouragement, or sweet smile, and carefully applied cartoon-print band-aid an act for a mission?

(What _Danzo_ had no way of knowing was that his attempt to gain the boy's trust would achieve, well, the exact opposite.)

A shadow fell across the light he’d been using to read. He hadn’t heard the door open. 

Shimura smiled at him, something grandfatherly in the crinkle of his eye, the easy rest of his spotted hands over the head of his cane.

“If it isn’t young Obito Uchiha,” the old man said in greeting. “May I ask what business you have in my office?”

Shit. Shit. Shit shit shit shit shit if Obito didn’t die in jail or something for breaking into the councilman’s office, Konan would skin him alive for doing this despite her warning. 

“I was just curious about Root,” he bluffed, and tried for a smile. He was certain it looked nervous, and he let it. He’d never been a good actor anyways, and maybe it’d make him look like less of a… A what? A security threat? Or something? 

“What a coincidence,” Shimura smiled. “Your teammates have been, too. You see, Nohara has already done some work with us, as I’m sure you read in that file there. I hope you won’t take it too personally, her mission. She is such a hardworking shinobi, and I’m sure she’d love to work more with you.”

Obito’s mouth tasted like copper. His stomach twisted. _Don’t take it too personally_ , yeah, right. 

He opened his mouth to reply, not sure at all of what he was about to say, and then the building shook. Obito and Danzo both turned to the window in surprise, right as an emergency alarm began to scream over the Village.

Outside, the Kyuubi no Kitsune raged.


	3. do you know what i really need? (interlude: Rin)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just one of many homes lost.

Rin’s condo, the one she’d grown up in, was destroyed during the Kyuubi attack.

When she found it, she couldn’t even find the energy to be sad. She’d used up all her tears on Minato and Kushina and little baby Naruto. This was just one more thing lost. Isobu had been forced out of many homes in his life, and his sympathy anchored her.

So, gingerly she stepped through the heaps of broken glass and splintered wood, over the wicker chair her aunt used to read in, ready to see what she could salvage now before she figured out anything else.

The scattered contents of a bookshelf could be dealt with later. They were in a dry spell so there was only the smallest possibility of rain to worry about. 

She makes her way into what was the kitchen feeling disorientated, her ability to walk through the entire condo eyes closed now obsolete. A beam that had held up the ceiling bisected the counter. It was easy enough to lift when channeling just a bit of chakra to her hands, but her dishes and cups were all destroyed. 

The electric kettle Kushina had given her was still intact. There were a couple of scratches marring it’s enamel coating, but that was fine. That was nothing. She fished out a charm Anko had bought her years ago, a bright red and gold little thing she’d hung above the sink, brushed it off gently, and slipped it into her pocket. Her box of assorted teas was destroyed but that was -- that was fine. It was just tea, and she could buy more.

Her bedroom was in… slightly better shape. Only one beam had caved in, one wall half-destroyed but the rest of the room only unsettled. She pocketed her team photo without a second thought, and surveyed the rest of the room with a sigh. Isobu sighed, too.

There was no way she could take everything right now. 

The bed probably wasn’t worth keeping with the damage done to it, but her blankets could be. She takes the time to fold them carefully. They sit on her bedside table, only scratched, while she picks up other personal effects and piles them on top.

A storage seal found intact in her closet took them all in easily. Another carried the rest of the tools she’d dug out of the closet, and then the family keepsakes she’d managed to save from her aunt’s room, including a summons scroll Rin remembers from her childhood but had never considered signing until now.

She stood there alone for some incalculable time, just looking. The sky only got darker overhead, and she wondered why nothing seemed to stay with her.


	4. hiding in the dark (interlude: Anko)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A short venture into fear and uncertainty.

Nine other children had died.

Anko had been strong enough to survive, and now she couldn’t even use this goddamn seal. She’d been strong enough to survive, but her sensei had abandoned her anyways. And nine other children were dead.

She didn’t want to see her old friends. Well, she did, but she was scared.

What if she looked in their eyes and saw someone else reflected in them? What if they were disappointed with what they saw? Most of her life had been spent unwanted, and she refused to go back. It wasn’t rejection if she was the one turning away.

(Now, Anko was going into Torture & Interrogation: she knew the human mind enough to know she was chock-full of abandonment issues at the very least, probably PTSD like every other one of her comrades especially after those labs. But she was a kid, scared and confused and hurting, so she ignored what her heart knew was best for her, and took the "easy" way out.)

But she had work to do, if she was going to be the one to stop Orochimaru. She owed it, to her memory of her sensei and to herself, to take on this responsibility.

If she missed her friends, well… That was a problem for later.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anko might play a minor role here compared to Rin or Obito but I wanted to make sure she was still present... I really like Anko so I couldn't help it


	5. i've always been a coward (interlude: Kakashi)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Guilt is heavy.

Kakashi did what he’d always done best - channeled all of him into his work, and hated himself.

When Danzo Shimura approaches him and observes that it was Sarutobi’s orders that kept him from being there for his sensei and his family, he seethed. His time in Root will be brief, but his resentment towards Sarutobi and the system he’d upheld and built, where their jobs came before their comrades' lives, will remain. The more he sees of the darkest parts of his Village, the more disillusioned he becomes. 

(In another time, another world, it’s worse. In another world it’s not just Minato’s name on the Memorial Stone, but his whole team’s, and he is infamous as the “Friend Killer”. Kushina isn’t on the Stone in either.)

Kakashi has spent most of his life as the ideal shinobi - a child prodigy, quick to learn and one you could rely on to carry out the mission at any cost. The ideal shinobi, he thinks, isn't the type he wants to be now. He thinks of the scars on Obito’s face, the discolored skin, the missing arm. He remembers his arm through Rin’s chest. He remembers the hole, the blood on his hands.

They’re alive, but he’s still failed them.

A shinobi who abandoned his comrades was worse than scum, Obito had said. What is a shinobi who fails his comrades, again and again?

He'll leave Root, but he will stay in ANBU much, much longer. Every team he is assigned to is successful, and more importantly, they always come back alive. Kakashi would do anything to save a teammate. He would do anything. 

Then, the Yamanaka he's supposed to report to once a month tells him that his inclination towards putting himself in harm's way without a moment's hesitation is straddling the thin line being heroic and suicidal, and that if he continues, he'll have to be withdrawn from active service. Kakashi doesn't talk to Possum, the one who had snitched, until long after that, after they're assigned to different team because they can't manage to work together, anymore.

He listens to the Yamanaka. Of course he does. ANBU is the only escape he has. His teams have a higher mortality rate, after that. Just enough that he notices. He knows. They’ve tried to promote him three times, for his skill and effiency despite his failures, and he refuses each and every one. He doesn't trust himself to lead.

He doesn't trust himself at all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> little baby Naruto isn't dead actually btw I almost feel bad for letting Team Minato believe he is but trust me on this one


	6. when i was a child... (interlude: Obito part II)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Obito makes his choice.

Obito can't stay in Konoha any longer.

Maybe his return home had been doomed from the start. He’d agreed with the Akatsuki, but hesitated to apply the same logic to the home he’d always fought for. He had wanted so badly to believe this time it would be okay, that he and his team could be happy now that they were all back together. But the shinobi world proved to be just what they’d told him it was -- a cruel one built on power, distrust, and lies rather than compassion. A world where he couldn't even trust his team.

There was no way Obito was going to keep living in a world like that.

Yahiko had told him he’d have a place in the Akatsuki, if he wanted to be there, and so he was going to return to them. Kakashi would survive. Rin would... He didn't want to think about that right now. Her betrayal hurt more than being under that rock had.

It was looking less and less like he could truly help anyone from where he was now. Not with Shimura, not without people he could actually trust, not without some sort of purpose to keep him going.

He knew where he could start to make a difference, and he was going to change the world, starting with this spark of rebellion.

The Uchiha always were good at fanning the flames.


	7. running away (epilogue: Rin)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time for a change.

Obito disappeared overnight.

Rin, who’d slept on his couch, is left with the vaguest memory of waking up some time in the night. She doesn’t remember anything substantial, just footsteps and his voice, quiet in the sadness that seemed to envelop the Village whole. When she woke the next morning, he was gone.

There was a note on the counter.

_See you when I’m done, okay?_

And that was it. Obito was gone again. He never had been good with words, had he? In the years that follow she will wonder what he left unsaid. If she’ll ever get a chance to ask him.

She makes the decision to leave herself only days later. Konoha had turned suffocating, and all that was left here for her were two people that didn’t want to see her. So she remembers Jiraiya of the Sannin, how she knew from Minato that he was an independent contractor, loyal to Konoha in all but official title, and is granted free movement outside of the Village. 

If she leaves, maybe she can see Obito before he chooses to come back himself. Maybe she’ll find whatever was missing to keep her from finding genuine happiness. If she leaves, she won’t have to join Root. 

Rin knows she’s being selfish. She knows the Village needs strength, and that she would be leaving Kakashi to fend for himself. But he won’t accept her help anyways. And if Konoha really and truly needs her, then her request will be overruled, so it’s at least worth trying.

To her surprise, the Sandaime lets her go. He tells her that maybe it would be best to keep the jinchuuriki away for now, since a moving target is harder to catch. She doesn’t correct him by pointing out that most shouldn’t even know she is a jinchuuriki. The Village is too scattered, stretched too wide, for the council members to even get involved in the decision, and she’s grateful for that.

She’s given the condition to stay in or near the Land of Fire for two years, so that if she is needed to defend the Village she’s close by, and if she uncovers any intel Konoha may need it’s her responsibility to send it back home. Of course she agrees. Of course.

So Rin takes what few possessions she has left, stocks up on rations and tags just in case, tells Kakashi because she doesn’t want to disappear like Obito had, and leaves Anko a letter when she gets no reply at her door. Fine.

She’s ready to go by the time dawn creeps, slow and milky and soft pink, into the sky. She almost tears up when she sees Kakashi already at the gates to see her off. He still can’t seem to look her in the eyes for long, but she’s just grateful he was there at all. More grateful still when he tolerates a hug. 

Rin’s gone before the sun makes it above the treeline.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> -again little baby Naruto IS alive
> 
> -re: Danzo and Root. my thoughts are that Danzo wanted to keep Rin around, ESPECIALLY after she managed to transplant a working Sharingan under those conditions (and because she's a jinchuuriki now). the only reason she gets to leave in the end was because Sarutobi signed off on that without the rest of the council, and Danzo is still more lying in wait, plotting, than taking big actions just yet. He has no reason to think she'd ever turn against the village, and him by extension.
> 
> -Sarutobi has made... many, many mistakes, I think. but the soft spot he seems to have for his Village's orphans is coming in handy for Rin here, even if it won't make Naruto's childhood any better in the coming years
> 
> I'm writing this AU for me first and foremost if you couldn't already tell how self-indulgent this is... I'm working on the next two parts (part 2: rins travels, part 3: picks up @ sarutobi's death, btwn konoha crush & search for tsunade) and the next one is already more planned out and shorter than this was, so it... shouldn't take me over two months like this one
> 
> umm i'm pvnk-femme on tumblr, and natade-art/natade_art for my art tumblr and twitter respectively!


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